Title: Stone Circles
Category: BBC Merlin, (Canon) Gen
Characters/Pairings: Merlin. Arthur, The knights
Rating/Warnings: K
Summary: Prompt 3 for the Halloween challenge at the Heart of Camelot. Arthur, the knights and Merlin follow an old Samhain ritual. Lots of description.
Thanks very much to Aerist on the Heart of Camelot for the cover art :D
Prompt:
Write a story based upon the traditional pagan holiday Samhain, from which our modern Halloween is derived. The story must take place in canon era or thereabouts – no modern AUs for this one, please!
Reading the prompt got me thinking about druidic locations, and I decided to go with one of the less obvious ones being Avebury stonehenge. Although these days the majority of the stones are no longer present it's still a very magical place to visit.
I hope you enjoy reading it was definitely an interesting one to write.
MM
The silvery light of the near full moon rained down on the party as the trudged on though the darkened landscape of the forest. Their destination not yet visible through the trees. The group consisted of the prince of Camelot, his five most trusted knights and of course his ever faithful servant.
Prince wore his normal chainmail, and sword but instead of the Pendragon red cloak, he wore a pitch black one, which just brushed the floor as he walked. The knights all also wore their chainmail, but had their usual red cloaks. It was Merlin who was wearing the most out of the ordinary garb, whilst he had still managed to keep a hold of his red shirt, and black trousers he also had a white cloak draped across his shoulders, the edges of which rested a third of the way across his chest, with a hood sitting bunched up behind his neck. He also had a necklace, of golden thread around his throat, on which a jet black stone was attached, weighing heavily on the centre of his chest.
The knights carried with them a turnip that had been both hollowed out and had the image of a spirit carved onto the front. Inside of each of the turnips was a weak flickering flame. Arthur carried nothing and lead the group, whilst Merlin had was charged with carrying a touch which was burning away merrily, at the back of the group, at action which caused shadows to fall in their incoming pathway, which often enough cased the warlock to almost trip over on the uneven ground.
As they broke through the trees and out into the open the group paused at the sight that lay their eyes fell upon. The pathway which stretched out before them was lined on both sides by tall, irregular stones, whose' exact forms were obscured by darkness. Merlin inhaled deeply, feeling the ancient and latent magic within the ground around them, stemming from the end of the avenue.
Up in the distance the group could make out a clearing, surrounded by a tall bank, and out of which moonlight was reflected in a pale grey. The group pushed forwards Arthur leading with confidence.
Shadows fell across the groups faces at regular intervals, as they moved past one stone after another. Quicker than they would have guessed the group had reached the end of the stone avenue, come to an entrance in the bank, which revealed more of the clearing they had glimpsed earlier.
The clearing before them contained an almost immense, circular stretch of what was perfectly level ground, enclosed on all sides but for thin almost insignificant pathways at each of the points of a compass, by a deep ditch cut into the almost pure chalk of the landscape, with a raised bank outside of that. Chalk which took the weak light of the moon and reflected it back in all directions providing the group enough light with which to view the whole of the clearing.
Whilst inside the clearing itself stood some 300 massive stones, positioned upright and into 3 circles. One lining the inside edge of the clearing, and two smaller circles inside the larger one, there outside edges almost meeting in what would be the centre of the bigger circle. And inside of each of these smaller circles was even more stones were laid out in a pattern which had lost all meaning some 2000 years previous.
Whilst the sight of this monument would be astonishing during the day time, it has nothing on the other worldly appearance it gained during the night, as the moonlight throw each of the stones in sharp relief, and the shadows danced around the white of the chalk bank in the back ground.
The stones themselves whilst from a distance looked no taller than a horse but were in reality more them twice the height of a man. The shapes varying from some which appeared nearly square to others which could have easily just fallen straighten off the side of a mountain, but for the lack of anything even vaguely resembling a mountain for miles around.
The group pause briefly taking in the view, before Arthur stepped out leading them down the north pathway into the stone circle. The knights and Merlin followed close behind, not very confident about what exactly they were doing, though Arthur had explained the approximate outline of what they were going to do.
As the group walked in amongst the stones, so that shadows fell on top of them, bringing fourth an eerie feeling, especial as the flames moved in the slightly breeze, giving some of the shadows a life like quality as they changed with the changing light.
They quickly covered the distance between the edge of the large circle and the edge of the closest smaller circle, at which point Arthur draw to a halt, the rest of the group halting also. The prince turned about 180 degrees so he was facing the rest of his party. The prince then spoke for the first time in what seemed like hours to the group.
"Right, now what we are going to do is, go into this circle and the walk to those three big stones, and stand between them. I'll go first with Leon, Elyan, Lancelot, Percival and Gwaine, and Merlin you wait here until I give the signal." The knights nodded whilst Merlin let out a huff of air.
With that said the prince once again turned, striding with confidence out into the circle, his head held height with confidence. The knights followed close behind, Leon with his quiet dignity in contrast to Gwaine's carefree confident attitude. Whilst behind the pair were Elyan and Percival, both of the quieter knights, than last but not least was Lancelot at the back, who cast a quick wink back towards Merlin before he followed on.
Merlin watched the knights go, trying not to shiver in the cold breeze, or because of the way the shadows played tricks with his mind. Instead he focused all of his attention on Arthur, waiting for the signal to join the rest.
MM
Reaching the centre of the circle and reaching the three centre stones, the group halted, quickly forming a small circle amongst themselves. Once they had stopped getting into position, Arthur raised his right arm, holding his palm face down. Prompting the knights to do the same with their lanterns, with a quirk of his eyebrow.
As one they lifted up their lanterns in which flames still just managed to survive, casting an almost ghostly glow onto Arthur's hand and arm. Which the prince quickly lowered.
"Now I need you all extinguish your lanterns." Arthur said voice level. The knights glanced briefly between themselves, before they all lifted there lanterns, twisting them so that the carving faced them, before they blew on the candles within. At the loss of the candle light the knights and the prince found they could no longer make each other but for their silhouettes.
Arthur nodded, not that anyone could see him do so.
"Merlin." Arthur called, though without shouting as in the silence his voice carried easily across to the manservant.
MM
Merlin watched as they meagre light from the lanterns vanished, before the prince called out for Merlin to approach. He held the touch out in front of himself in an attempt to light the floor so he could avoid tripping and, messing up the whole evening.
The heat of the flame provided a considerable contrast to the chill of the approaching winter, and turned Merlin's cheeks a warm pink. He stepped forwards carefully, making sure to place his foot firmly before, he took his next step.
He was aware of all the knights and Arthur watching him expectantly, as he drew up to the group.
Arthur nodded at Merlin once he stopped next to the prince.
"And so the fire of the past year is extinguished, as the new is brought forth." Arthur spoke, his voice level, and solemn. The prince gestured for Merlin to step forwards so he was in front of the knights.
"The new flame shall be used to light the bone-fire with the hopes that it shall bring good fortune for the next harvest."
Merlin approached the knights one at a time staring with Leon, holding his touch out so that he could use it to light the lantern, though that proved to be a difficult task when it came to not burning either his own or Leon's hand. Eventually he managed to light it, so he could move on to the next member in the circle. Once Merlin had re-lit all the torches, he stepped back to stand besides Arthur, being unsure of what to do next.
"Merlin." The prince held his hand out to the servant, with a pointed look at the torch he carried. Merlin's eyebrow rose briefly, before he handed the torch over.
The Prince held the torch at arm's length for a moment, before he let it fall to the floor, he then stamped on the flame with his foot effectively extinguishing it, and putting the group back in the near blackness of the night.
As the flame disappeared Merlin felt a stirring in the magic of the ground as it responded to their actions and the prince's words. The servant found himself suppressing a grin, even though it was unlikely that anyone would see. Whilst inside Merlin felt a rush of happiness if, Arthur was willing to take part in a ceremony closely linked to the old religion, then maybe not all hope was lost for the future.
"Alright, now we need to head back to Camelot." Arthur cut though Merlin's musing. The knights all nodded, holding their lanterns up higher so that they would light up the clearing better, or at least in theory they would.
As the group moved off after Arthur, Merlin hung back slightly along with Lancelot, the knight in question casting him a meaningful look. And once the other knights were out of earshot he spoke.
"Was that a grin I saw from you back there?" He phrased it as a question but, he was grinning himself already knowing the answer.
"Perhaps." Merlin answer slyly, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards, before he turned back towards the ground as he almost stumbled over a random branch.
Lancelot chuckled at the picture the manservant made the white cloak billowing outwards, at the sudden movement, and the man himself practically pin wheeling his arms to keep upright. After steadying himself the servant turned back toward the knight a mock scowl on his face, which quickly evaporated as he caught sight of Lancelot's expression.
"Here's to the next year." The knight said slinging one arm around Merlin's shoulders and pulling him into a half hug.